With the development of Apple Inc.'s iPod®, portable players for digital media entered the mainstream. Such portable media players routinely provide compact storage and playback of thousands of songs, and recent models include capabilities for storing and playing videos as well. The widespread availability of such devices created a platform for a new method of communication: podcasting. The term “podcast” is a combination of the words “iPod” and “broadcast”, and it in essence refers to the ability to syndicate an audible program to subscribers' portable media players.
The podcasting process begins with a content provider publishing an audio file on the Internet. The content provider then references that audio file in a syndication file, which in addition to the uniform resource locator (URL) of the audio file, typically includes additional information such as title, description, publication date, etc., of the audio program along with similar information for previous episodes of the program. The syndication file is commonly in a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) format, though other standard formats are also suitable. The syndication file has a fixed URL so that software on subscribers' computers can periodically check for new material. When new material is detected, the software typically downloads the newest audio file automatically so that it can be easily transferred to the portable media players the next time a synchronization is performed. In this manner, owners of media players are theoretically able to maintain dynamic and current content on their media players for “on the go” listening.
Podcasting has achieved widespread success. However, the podcasting process may have a number of shortcomings that have not been adequately identified and addressed heretofore. For example, podcast subscribers are required to have some amount of foresight regarding their listening preferences when subscribing and, moreover, must remember to charge, synchronize, and bring their portable media players (and headphones) with them for every circumstance in which they might wish to listen to their preferred podcast content. Often, some oversight in the subscribing, downloading, charging, synchronization, and custody process will leave a user without any ability to listen to the latest podcast material.
As another example, the podcast process typically imposes a significant degree of latency between the publication of the material and the subscriber's listening experience. For some subscribers, this latency is undesirable. It is perhaps unsurprising that, according to a consumer survey reported by TDG (The Diffusion Group) Research, the vast majority of downloaded podcasts are never transferred to a portable media player, but rather are played directly on networked computers.
While the disclosed inventions are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the inventions to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the inventions as defined by the appended claims.